The Checkers store in Rylands has been slapped with a warning by the Muslim Judicial Council after a pork product was incorrectly labelled as Halaal.
The incident caused a stir on social media on Tuesday as a shopper warned mense to be wakker when he came across a pack of minced meat containing both beef and pork but had the certified Halaal sticker placed on it.
In the picture, the ingredients listed clearly show that the mince was made of 55% beef, 24% pork and 12% water and expired on 28 November.
Social media users questioned how this mishap happened as the store is known for selling Halaal-only products.
In a statement the MJC explains they were alerted to the problem and investigated the matter and found it was due to human error.
“Checkers Rylands, a halaal-certified store, sells only halaal meat products. We were alerted to a mislabelled meat product in the store that incorrectly indicated it contained pork. Upon investigation, we confirmed the product is halaal, and the situation arose due to human error.
“The incorrect ingredient label was delivered to the store. Staff applied the label without verifying it.”
The MJC also stated that the store had been issued a warning and given strict instructions to implement measures to prevent this from happening again.
“All halaal-certified stores undergo regular inspections by area and store inspectors to ensure compliance. We thank the consumer who immediately brought this to our attention, enabling a swift response.”
Checkers did not respond to questions about how the mistake happened but said: “The supermarket chain would like to apologise for any offence caused by this labelling error. The store has since corrected and addressed the oversight which was due to human error.”
monique.duval@inl.co.za